The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of “Terrorism”

Glenn Greenwald writes today at Salon on the subject of the Oslo attacks:

For much of the day yesterday, the featured headline on The New York Times online front page strongly suggested that Muslims were responsible for the attacks on Oslo; that led to definitive statements on the BBC and elsewhere that Muslims were the culprits. The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin wrote a whole column based on the assertion that Muslims were responsible, one that, as James Fallows notes, remains at the Post with no corrections or updates. The morning statement issued by President Obama — “It’s a reminder that the entire international community holds a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring” and “we have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks” — appeared to assume, though (to its credit) without overtly stating, that the perpetrator was an international terrorist group.

Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

“If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington.

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§ One Response to The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of “Terrorism”

Fox News has been alleging a Muslim involvment behind the 22 July tragic events in Oslo and Utoya Island in Norway. While no evidence was brought forward, the same assertions were made “The O’Reilly Factor” show dated 22 July 2011. When it comes to put their weight either in favour of substance or sensationalism you know who the News Corp owned channel sides with!